Partial or even complete cancer regression can be achieved in some patients with current cancer treatments. However, such initial responses are almost always followed by relapse, with the recurrent cancer being resistant to further treatments. The discovery of therapeutic approaches that counteract relapse is, therefore, essential for advancing cancer medicine. Cancer cells are extremely heterogeneous, even in each individual patient, in terms of their malignant potential, drug sensitivity, and their potential to metastasize and cause relapse. Indeed, hypermalignant cancer cells, termed cancer stem cells or tumor-initiating cells, that are highly tumorigenic and metastatic have been isolated from cancer patients with a variety of tumor types. Moreover, such stemness-high cancer cells are resistant to conventional chemotherapy and radiation.
Therefore, development of specific therapies targeted at cancer stem cells holds hope for improvement of survival and quality of life of cancer patients, especially for patients with metastatic disease.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,635,788 discloses hydroxamic acid derivatives containing an alpha-aminoacyl moiety and having inhibitory activity on the proinflammatory cytokines production, in particular TNFα. Such compounds are useful in the treatment of inflammatory diseases and other disorders characterised by overproduction of TNFα or other proinflammatory cytokines. Said compounds furthermore exhibit a cytotoxicity activity in in vitro testing on human hepatoma cell line Hep-G2.